Simple Reason Why Carnival Row Season 2 Was Such a Flop
The series that raised high hopes turned out to be an unconvincing and fussy disappointment.
Carnival Row is a good example of how unpredictable is the fate of large-scale shows.
The first major fantasy saga from Amazon started in the summer of 2019 with such stars as Orlando Bloom and Сara Delevingne, and was renewed for a second season even before the official launch.
Due to the hidden difficulties of production, the sequel reached the screen only now, when the project itself was already closed, and the main screenwriter Travis Beacham left.
The break of three and a half years forces us to remember what the audience was dealing with at the beginning. In the alternate universe there is a war between the two powers, the Pact and the Republic of Burgue.
In this troubled environment, police inspector Philostrate investigates a series of brutal murders in Carnival Row, and in the meantime, the fairy Vignette, who fell in love with Philostrate several years ago and thought he was dead, arrives.
Carnival Row was a curious mixture of magical realism and dark Victorian detective stories, where the narrative pattern was redeemed by a colorful universe that was interesting in itself.
Add a dash of crime thriller and romantic drama, season it all with power struggles, and you get a highly curious story.
By the end of the season, the government changed, and Carnival Row with all its magical inhabitants, including the main characters, was surrounded by barbed wire and turned into a kind of concentration camp.
The action of the second season takes place only a few weeks after the events of the first season, and the scope of the plot expands.
Unfortunately, the flaws of the first season have been carried over to the second chapter and have only intensified along the way — the setting of the story is still more interesting than most of the passions raging in it, and a complicated plot intrigue lacks time for full development.
The main complaint of the fans was that the writers tried to cram a lot of events into one season — and, naturally, failed.
"I feel like there's at least two or three seasons worth of content jammed in here, all rushed, and with major portions either missing, or forced into place haphazardly, just so they can wrap things up," Reddit user Gath_Man said.
Perhaps, in time, Amazon will be able to pay tribute to this universe through non-screen material (there are already several audiobooks and comics that reveal new details about the fate of the characters).
But for now, the underwhelming performance of the second season shows that the creators' good intentions have not really paid off.
You can stream both seasons of Carnival Row on Prime Video.